Rita's family had just returned back home from Sunday service and she was helping their housemaid in setting the table for lunch.

"Go and tell Jude to come down for lunch," her mum said to her, just as she walked into the dining room with her husband, Mr. Chigozie.

"Yes mum," Rita said and immediately dropped the ceramic plate she was holding on the table, before leaving to get her elder brother.

Mr. Chigozie was a successful business man who specializes on furniture-making and selling, while his wife owned a large and successful textile business which had its headquarters in Lagos. They both tried as much as possible to have time for their two children, and yet, not ignore their business since they kept an eye on the people they had left in charge for most of the time.

Rita quietly knocked on her brother's room before going inside. Her brother who looked a little bit like her, taking some of her features such as her nose and eyes looked away from his laptop just as he noticed his sister walk in.

"Mummy said you should come down for lunch," Rita said to him.

"I'm hearing a girl's voice. Who is it?" a young girls voice came from the laptop.

"It's just my sister," Jude replied back and Rita got the clue that he was on a video call.

"I would talk to you later, bye. Take good care of yourself," Jude said to the girl before switching off his laptop.

"Who is that? Is she your girlfriend?" Rita asked.

"Mind your business," Jude replied.

"I would take that as a yes then," Rita said with a smirk on her face.

"Whatever. What did they cook?" Jude asked her.

"Jollof rice."

"Okay," Jude said and with that he opened the door to his room, and they both left the room.

When they got to the dining table, their parents were already settled, waiting for them.

"I know it's your phone you were pressing in that room. Every time phone," his mum spoke to Jude immediately he sat down next to Rita who immediately let out a short laugh.

"I was not pressing my phone. Itl was even my laptop I was using. I don't know what you have against phone in the first place. Somebody can not press phone in peace again," Jude fired back.

"Hope you are reading your books the way you are using the phone," his mum said in a final note before the prayer was said to bless the food.

Immediately after eating and helping in clearing the table, Rita went to sit down on the sofa in their living room. Her parents had gone back to their room and her brother to his room also after lunch.

She spent some time to watch the Nollywood drama that was playing on the television before focusing her attention on her phone, scrolling through the pictures they had taken at Rachael's birthday the day before.

She noticed when Jude quietly sat next to her on the sofa but didn't remove her eyes from the picture she was looking at. She had taken that particular picture with Rachael and Vincent and she really loved how it had turned out.

"You know Tiger?" Jude asked, staring into Rita's phone.

Upon hearing Jude's question, Rita immediately diverted her gaze from her phone to her him, wondering what he meant by that.

"Why are you looking at me as if you heard that you can now turn water into wine?" Jude asked her, his brows arched.

"What did I just hear you say?" Rita asked her brother just to be sure she had heard him clearly the other time.

"I asked if you also knew Tiger," Jude replied again but this time now pointing at a person in the picture which Rita immediately recognized as Cyril. He was just a little bit far behind them in the picture but his face was in view.

"His name is Cyril and not Tiger. Besides, do you know him from somewhere?" Rita asked, wanting to get things clear since she couldn't understand what her brother was driving at.

"Oh yeah, his name is Cyril but he is popularly known as Tiger in school. We are in the same department and level," Jude explained further.

"Are you serious about this?" Rita asked with a shocked look.

"Yes I am. Would I lie to you?" Jude replied.

"No of course you wouldn't, it's just that when we had a little introduction yesterday at the party he had told us something different," Rita said.

"Hmm, this is getting interesting but I'm not too surprised, the Tiger I know is capable of doing or saying anything. So what did he tell you guys?" Jude curiously asked.

"He told us he is attending a secondary school here in Lagos which I've already forgotten the name of and that he was in the same class with us too," Rita narrated to Jude who started laughing hardly as if he had just heard the biggest joke of all time.

"Be serious and stop laughing na," Rita said in frustration, she didn't seem to understand the situation yet.

"mehn, that guy is something. Someone that is a student at the University of Lagos, studying mechanical engineering just as I am," Jude explained further.

"So you mean he is in year three with you?" Rita asked.

"Yeah, he is. But I wonder how come you and your friends crossed paths with him," jude said .

"He is the cousin of a classmate of mine," Rita said.

"What is his or her name?" Jude asked.

"Her name is Diane," Rita replied.

"The one you were gisting me about the other time? The Instagram and YouTube queen of your class?" Jude went on asking.

"Yeah, that one. She had told us that he is her cousin," Rita told him.

"Okay... so that is how you guys met at Rachael's party," Jude said on a clearer tone as he now understood the connection.

"Yeah. But what I don't understand is why he would lie to us about something like that. I wonder what he is up to," Rita thoughtfully said.

"I really don't know but one thing I would let you know for sure about him is that he can get really dangerous. He had gotten himself into trouble a lot of times at school and that had even earned him some suspensions. Some people even say he is a cultist but I don't really know for sure about that," Jude said and it made Rita's mouth open in shock.

"That's really serious, and Vincent told me he didn't trust that guy too. I should warn Rachael about him but first, I need to tell Vincent about this," Rita concluded.

"Is Vincent the other guy in the picture?" asked Jude.

"Yeah and a close friend to Rachael and I too," replied Rita.

"Alright, just do what you need to do, as for me I'm going back to play my video game," Jude said to Rita before leaving her to his room.

Rita immediately dialed Vincent's number and waited anxiously for him to pick up as it rang.

"Rita, how come you are already missing my presence just now," Vincent's voice came through immediately he picked the call up.

"You seriously wish, what is there to miss about you? Or is it your trouble I should miss?" Rita asked with a chuckle.

"What's up then, why are you calling me?" Vincent asked.

"It's about Rachael," Rita said without thinking.

"What! Did anything happen to her? What's wrong?" Vincent nervously bombarded Rita with questions.

Rita laughed. "Calm down, lover boy."

"Rita be serious please. What happened to Rachael?" Vincent asked again.

"Vincent please nothing happened to her, it's actually about Cyril," Rita replied.

"What about him?" Vincent curiously asked and Rita repeated every single word Jude had told her about Cyril.

"I did have a feeling that something was off with that guy, so he is not even a secondary school student like us," Vincent said, immediately after Rita was done.

"Yeah, I was planning on telling Rachael about it but wanted to let you know first," Rita said.

"Of course she needs to know who he really is, just in case she was planning on being friends with him too," Vincent agreed.

"Okay I would do just that. I can't believe he deceived us just so easily," Rita said.

"You know he has a baby face, so I guess that was how he made us to believe that he is also a secondary school student," Vincent said.

"Yeah, you are right about that. He does have a baby face," Rita agreed.

"Alright, bye then," she said to Vincent.

"Bye," Vincent replied before hanging up on Rita.

Rita immediately dialed Rachael's number after talking with Vincent.

"Hi Rachael. How are you?" Rita asked, immediately Rachael picked up the call.

"Bestie, I'm fine. How are you doing?" asked Rachael.

"I'm doing fine too. I have something to tell you," Rita began.

"Some latest celebrity news or what?" Rachael jokingly asked, knowing the kind of friend Rita is.

"Not that, something more important. It's about Cyril. He had lied to us yesterday," Rita said before taking a break for Rachael to take in the news.

"What do you mean by that?" Rachael asked.

"He told us he was a secondary school student like us both he is not. He is actually a student at UNILAG," Rita revealed.

"And how would you know that? Didn't you just meet him yesterday?" Rachael asked.

"My brother knows him and he just informed me about him. He is a liar Rachael and I hope you are not getting closer to him since you now get along with Diane these days. You know he is her cousin," Rita warned.

"Seriously, Rita, I can't believe you. So because you don't like me hanging out with Diane, you think her cousin is now a bad person too?" Rachael said, not buying any of what Rita was saying.

"Come on Rachael, this is about your safety and not about Diane. I'm telling you this so that you would be careful around him," Rita said in frustration.

"And how is your brother so sure that Cyril is the same person in his school. What if he is making a mistake?" Rachael asked.

"What! I trust my brother and what he says. He can't be lying to me," Rita defended.

"I can't just believe your story okay. I know that I've known Cyril for just a couple of days but he seems like a good guy," Rachael said, not relenting on her stand.

"So you would take a stranger's words over your friend's?" Rita bitterly asked as she was clearly hurt that Rachael was not believing her.

"Look, I really don't know what you have against Diane or her cousin or even her friends but you need to get over it because they are all harmless okay! Bye." Rachael said and with that, she hung up on Rita.

"How could you... Rachael... Hello," Rita spoke on and the silence from the other end told her that her friend had really hung up on her.

"Seriously? She now thinks I'm framing Diane and Cyril up?" Rita talked to herself, feeling really bad that Rachael had not believed her.

                             ~•~